Targretin was the drug that was used and as the article below states that based on the fact that it eliminated plaque behind Alzheimer's from the brains of mice, it did not work in the real world. Trials were set up and some were able to get the prescription for the cancer drug, “off label” to treat Alzheimer’s. This is actually sad that it didn’t work so there are still patients wanting the treatment, and again the studies were never replicated as was originally reported. The drug, Targretin can also damage the liver so another side effect. BD

It sounded too good to be true and unfortunately it was. Three research studies out Thursday severely diminish the hope that a cancer drug already on the market could be an Alzheimer’s treatment.

In February 2012 scientists at Case Western University Medical Center reported that a drug approved to treat skin cancer cured a mouse of a form of Alzheimer’s. They reported the drug eliminated the plaque that is the hallmark of Alzheimer’s from the brains of the mice and that the mice seemed to recover from their memory and other cognitive problems.

Researchers quickly set up trials of the drug in people with Alzheimer’s. But some patients’ families did not want to wait for the human experiments. They asked their doctors for prescriptions and in many cases, according to anecdotal reports, they got them. "There is absolutely no reduction in amyloid levels in the brains of mice treated with this compound," Sisodia wrote in a technical comment in the journal Science. Teams at the University of Florida and researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium published similar findings in the same journal.